Evel Knievel, legendary daredevil, dies - CNN.com
This really makes me sad. When I was a kid, he was my hero. They don’t make people like him anymore.
He will be missed.
Evel Knievel, legendary daredevil, dies - CNN.com
Evel Knievel, legendary daredevil, dies
- Story Highlights
- Evel Knievel dead at 69, according to his Web site
- Knievel a famous motorcycle daredevil, tried to jump Snake River Canyon
- Knievel image spawned toys, merchandise, appeared on magazine covers
(CNN) — Evel Knievel, the motorcycle daredevil
whose stunts — including an attempted leap over Idaho’s Snake River
Canyon — made him a popular cultural figure, is dead, according to his
Web site, evelknievel.com. He was 69.Over his career, Knievel
was said to have broken practically every bone in his body — some
multiple times. With his red-white-and-blue jumpsuits, shock of hair
and stone-faced mein, he was a fixture on ABC’s program “Wide World of
Sports” in the 1970s, his stunts perennial ratings-grabbers.Knievel’s
most famous stunt was probably an attempt to jump the quarter-mile wide
Snake River Canyon in 1974 on his rocket-powered “Sky-Cycle.” (He had
hoped to jump the Grand Canyon, but couldn’t get permission.) The
attempt failed, but the publicity was priceless.See photos of the motorcycle daredevil »
His fame even spawned a movie, “Viva Knievel!” in 1977.
Robert Craig Knievel was born October 17, 1938, in Butte, Montana.
Earlier
this week, Knievel amicably settled a lawsuit with rap star Kanye West
over West’s use of a persona called “Evel Kanyevel” in his video for
“Touch the Sky.”“I was very satisfied and so was he,” Knievel told The Associated Press.
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